


Oblivion

by DarkQueenSigyn



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Multi, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Rating May Change, Warnings May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-01-11 03:38:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18422037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkQueenSigyn/pseuds/DarkQueenSigyn
Summary: Set after the events of Infinity War. Loki once again finds himself resurrected, and now he and the Valkyrie are out for revenge against Thanos. Together, the unlikely duo must search the cosmos for others who can help them take down the Mad Titan once and for all, and possibly undo the damage he has done to the universe.





	1. Prologue

Loki was falling. 

Even when he had let go of his father’s scepter and willingly fell into the vast abyss of space, letting it swallow him whole and threaten to shred his physical form into atoms, he had never known falling like this. 

The first time he had died, it had been quiet. Cold. Almost peaceful, despite the violence of the act.

He had pulled himself back from the brink then, through magic and mischief and sheer force of will. But he knew now, there was no magic he possessed that was strong enough to pull him back from this.

His last memories still burned behind his eyelids; his brother’s screams of anguish still echoed in his ears. He couldn’t breathe. He could barely think. All he could feel was rage, rage that the Mad Titan had broken him. As if toying with his mind, using him as a puppet with which to wage war on Earth, hadn’t been enough. 

He fell, and fell, and gasped, and choked, and screamed.

And then...he stopped.

There was no impact. One moment, he was falling, and then the next, he was not; instead laying on a vast expanse of sheetrock.

His eyes finally opened, and he slowly began to lift himself up as he took in his surroundings, regaining his bearings. He was suddenly no longer in any pain.

It was dark, and cold. As he pulled himself to his feet, he realized that what he was standing upon was not sheetrock, but frozen lava, and it spread out as far as the eye could see; rising and spiralling up into craggy mountains all around him. In the centre of it all was a throne, made of solid lava and stone and human bones, and a figure sat upon it. Dark hair fell over their face, their form swathed in deep green and obsidian black fabric that cascaded down from their body onto the volcanic rock below. The figure spoke, and it was a voice that Loki knew.

“Hello, brother.”

Loki steeled himself. “Hela.”

The Goddess of Death slowly rose from her throne, lifting her head so that her hair fell away, exposing her face even in the dim light. She was far from the powerful being she had been when Loki and Thor had faced off against her; her face haggard, her eyes gone completely black like two shining marbles.

“You look…” Loki began, but trailed off.

“Like death?” Hela finished for him, before giving way to a low, dry chuckle. “How appropriate.”

“I thought you were…”

“I am dead, you fool,” she cut him off harshly, taking a step down from her platform to approach him. “And, evidently, so are you.” 

Hela laughed again, and this time it rang all around them, echoing off the tall spirals of molten rock that stood all around them.

“Do tell me, little trickster,” she went on, drawing closer and closer to Loki; though once she stepped off her platform, her feet never seemed to touch the ground. “What happened? I didn’t expect to see you here so soon.”

She was enjoying this, and Loki knew it. In spite of himself, he couldn’t say he blamed her. More than that, he was in her realm now, and no amount of fighting would change that. The best he could hope for would come from abiding by her rules, for the moment.

“Thanos,” he answered quickly, avoiding her gaze. 

He was expecting her to laugh at him again; to taunt him, or gloat over his defeat. But, to his surprise, she didn’t. The wicked smirk on her face disappeared, and her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

“After we left Asgard, our ship was attacked,” Loki continued. “They slaughtered everyone. Even Heimdall.”

He swallowed thickly. He and Heimdall had never gotten along, and yet...he knew the Gatekeeper had deserved a better end.

“I…” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know if Thor survived.”

Hela was still silent, watching Loki as he spoke with her keen, dark eyes. 

“You should know all this,” he added, turning towards her with a sudden surge of frustration. “You’re the Goddess of Death, aren’t you?”  
Hela shook her head and chuckled softly, but the sound was hollow.

“Child,” she said, her voice lacking its former bitterness. “You and our brother killed me. My power is not what it once was. But I know now...their souls have already been ushered to Valhalla. All...except you.”

She moved slowly, beginning to gradually circle around him, but Loki didn’t look at her.

“I lived my life,” he told her simply. “I made my choices. I know why I am here.”

Hela finally circled around until she was facing him directly once again.

“I know, too,” she murmured, staring into his face with her gleaming, dead eyes as she hovered over him. “I know...that it is not your time.”

Loki’s brow furrowed. “I beg your pardon?”

“After everything you’ve done...to have redemption within your grasp, only to have it snatched away by the very creature who dragged you down so low,” Hela said softly, her empty eyes seeming to see straight through into Loki’s soul. “No...you have unfinished business, little brother.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Loki insisted, in disbelief. “I’m dead. There is no business to be left unfinished. Thanos choked the life out of me, there is no coming back from that. Not even for me.”

Hela’s dark smile once again spread across her face, exposing sharp, blackened teeth.

“You still don’t know everything,” she told him, that smug note creeping back into her voice. “There is someone who still needs you.”

Loki’s confusion only deepened. “What?”

“Be grateful, brother,” Hela whispered, reaching out towards him with a gnarled hand. “I have just enough magic left...to do this for you…”

“Wait--!”

Hela’s thumb touched the centre of Loki’s forehead, and all at once he was pulled, as if by force, out of the Underworld.

~

“Loki!!”

Loki’s eyes flew open, and he bolted upright with a gasp as he landed back in his body. Each breath he took was a struggle, and for a moment the only sound he could make was a ragged choking noise.

“Damn it, Loki, you scared the life out of me!”

He blinked rapidly, disoriented, and as his vision slowly cleared he looked towards the source of the voice.

It was the Valkyrie -- dishevelled, sober, and very much alive.

“How...in the Realms...did you survive?” Loki asked, still wheezing with each word.

“I should be asking you the same thing,” she pointed out, aptly.

Loki was still looking around at their surroundings, and finally realized that they were no longer aboard the Asgardian refugee ship. This craft was much smaller; little more than a mobile cockpit, with just enough space besides for the both of them. The autopilot was clearly still in working order.

“First of all…” Loki gasped out, pausing to swallow as he gradually regained full usage of his vocal chords. “Where’s Thor? Is he alive?”

“He’s alive,” she reassured him with a nod. “I wasn’t able to get to him, but he was picked up by another ship. I know he’ll be safe.”

Loki breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Somehow, he believed her instincts.

“Now...tell me why you’re alive, and I’ll tell you why I’m alive,” she pressed on, clearly intent on getting an answer.

Loki shifted, wincing as he remembered how painful it was to inhabit a physical body. “It was Hela,” he admitted. “I ended up in the Underworld, and for some reason I can’t possibly fathom, she elected to resurrect me.”

The Valkyrie couldn’t help but smirk. “Of course,” she mused. “Even Death itself makes exceptions for you.”

Loki cracked a smile of his own. “What about you?”

“The big ugly one knocked me out, thought I was dead,” she explained. “When I came to, I snuck into an escape craft before the ship completely fell apart.”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “And...how exactly did I end up here with you?”

She scoffed, clearly loathe to admit the answer to that inquiry. “I grabbed you and took you with me. While you were still...dead.”

It was the only answer that made sense, and yet Loki wanted to laugh upon hearing it. 

“And why, exactly, did you do that?” he asked her, and predictably was met with a glare in response.

“Not out of sentiment, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she muttered. Even so, her steely veneer softened, just slightly. “I wanted to do right by Thor, any way that I could.”

“...You intended to see to my funeral rites?”

She shrugged. “Something like that.”

He shot her a lopsided grin. “You do care,” he teased her. “In your own way.”

The Valkyrie rolled her eyes. “I will not hesitate to render you dead again if you piss me off.”

Loki laughed, only to discover it hurt to laugh, and he doubled over against the burn in his lungs. The Valkyrie, meanwhile, got to her feet, heading back towards the pilot’s seat of the escape craft.

As he staggered to his feet, Loki’s gaze found the control panel of the craft, and noticed that there was already a route set on it.

“Dare I ask where you’re taking us?”

“The only place I could think of,” she told him. “Titan.”

“Titan?!” Loki echoed. “Are you mad? We barely managed to escape from Thanos with our lives, now you want to head straight to him?”

“Of course,” she said simply. “So we can kill him.”


	2. Chapter 1

Halfway across the galaxy, a star fell from the heavens. Soaring through space, steadily plummeting towards Earth.

That star was Carol Danvers.

Time passed differently in space, yet no matter which way one chose to look at it, she knew it had been a long time since she had last been on Earth. Thinking of the promise she had made to Nick Fury, she supposed that meant it had simply been a long time since they had needed her.

Whatever had happened, they sure as hell needed her now.

Now she flew, faster than any spacecraft, following the signal emitted by the homing beacon she had given Fury. 

She had been expecting a disaster. But she never could have imagined what was waiting for her once she finally touched down on Terran soil. 

What awaited her was the end of the world.

~

“I know that you’re angry,” Loki told the Valkyrie, dragging himself forward until he could seat himself beside her. “Believe me, so am I. But the fact remains, the two of us alone will never stand a chance against Thanos. It’s impossible.”

“What would you suggest we do, then?” she asked him. Though it was a thinly veiled challenge, she knew deep down that he was right; and she hated that fact.

“I…” Loki began, but stopped himself with a sigh. “I don’t know. What I do know is, my sister used the last of her powers to bring me back to life, and while I may not be able to wrap my head around her reasons for doing so, I certainly don’t intend to waste it by rushing into anything without a plan.”

The Valkyrie was clearly surprised, but nodded all the same. “That’s...rational,” she conceded.

The wheels in Loki’s mind were spinning rampantly. “So, let’s examine the facts,” he said, speaking almost more to himself than to her. “We won’t be able to stop Thanos, that much is certain. He’s too powerful. More than that, by the time we reach Titan, it’s very likely he’ll already have gathered the rest of the Stones and put his plan into action. The Avengers will try and stop him, but...they’ll fail.”

Then something clicked. “The Avengers,” he murmured again, before looking over at the Valkyrie. “Earth. Thanos is taking the Stones to Earth. That’s his play. And once he uses the Stones to wipe out half the galaxy -- which he may have already done -- then he’ll be weakened. He’ll be trapped on Earth for some time. Which means…”

“He won’t be on Titan,” she filled in.

“Exactly.” Loki’s gaze once again fell onto the coordinates that were steering their commandeered vessel. “So we go to Titan. There has to be something there, anything, that might give away Thanos’ weakness...if indeed he has one.”

“Everyone has a weakness,” the Valkyrie said, with certainty in her voice.

~

“Tell me what happened.”

Natasha held the gaze of the woman now sitting opposite her. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting to be on the other end of Fury’s distress signal, but this...came almost as a pleasant surprise. If Fury trusted her that implicitly, she felt that she could, too.

“You know about the Tesseract, right?”

The blonde woman nodded.

“There are five other stones like it,” Natasha continued. “Each of them control a certain aspect of...existence as we know it. Thanos is...simply speaking, an alien. His aim was to collect all six of the stones and use them to wipe out half of all life in the universe.” Her face fell. “And he won.”

Carol watched her closely, taking in the information. Processing it.

“And Fury?”

Natasha shook her head. “He didn’t make it.”

Carol’s jaw tightened, and she drew a deep breath. Maintaining her composure...for the moment, anyway.

“Where is Thanos now?”

“No one knows,” Natasha answered. “He disappeared after he used the Stones. It’s possible he might still be on Earth somewhere.”

“Is there anywhere else he might have gone?”

Natasha was silent for a moment, deep in thought. “A planet called Titan,” she said finally. “From what Stark was able to tell us, it was Thanos’ home planet once.”

“Then that’s where we start,” Carol said decisively, rising to her feet. “Right now, it’s the best lead we’ve got.”

Watching her then, Natasha seemed to realize something. She hesitated, only for a moment, before she spoke again.

“You’re Captain Marvel, aren’t you?”

Carol met her eyes again, and almost cracked a smile. “Is that what Fury called me?”

Natasha nodded. “He told me about you, once,” she confessed. “When I was in training. I thought it was something he made up -- some kind of inspirational fairy tale, or something like that. But...the thought that you were out there; that if something ever happened that we couldn’t handle, you’d be there...it gave me hope.”

The sudden show of vulnerability took Carol by surprise. Even so soon after meeting Natasha, it was clear she wasn’t a woman who was vulnerable very often...much like Carol herself. More than that, the sentiment in itself reminded her so much of Maria, that it brought the slightest of smiles to her face. 

“Hold onto that pager,” she told her. “If I find anything up there, you’ll be the first to know.”

~

Titan was a desolate wasteland of a planet; a mere shadow of its former glory. Wreckage covered its surface, its sky burned a pale gold. Red dust covered everything as far as the eye could see.

Some old, partially destroyed spacecrafts were left behind on the surface of the planet, and that fact soon became relevant for two reasons.

The first was that upon touching down on Titan, it became clear very quickly that the escape craft Loki and the Valkyrie had commandeered was now out of fuel.

The second was that the only living figure on the planet Titan was desperately tinkering away at one of said wrecks, in a mad attempt to get it running again.

At least, they had been, until they had noticed the craft landing on the planet. Now said figure was advancing on them, and advancing quickly.

As the figure drew nearer, their features became more discernible. Their skin was blue; and it was a safe assumption that they belonged to some kind of alien race. They were completely bald, and as they came closer still one couldn’t help but notice their robotic arm...and eye...and several other parts of their body. Their eyes were dark, and seemed to be permanently angry.

“Who are you people?!” the cyborg barked. Though she stopped in front of them without making any moves to attack, Loki put his hands up defensively; while the Valkyrie touched the hilt of her blade to be ready for a fight.

“We’re Asgardians,” the Valkyrie said, in the same moment that Loki said “We mean you no harm.”

The cyborg met Loki’s eyes, and recognition suddenly dawned on him.

“Wait…” he said, slowly lowering his hands. “I know you. You are Nebula...daughter of Thanos.”

Nebula scoffed. “That man is no father to me,” she hissed through her teeth. “How do you know me?”

“I was...an associate of Thanos, so to speak,” Loki admitted, by way of explanation. “But no longer.”

“Thanos took everything from us,” the Valkyrie added, and Nebula tore her gaze away with a low growl.

“Of course,” she murmured. “That’s all he knows how to do.”

She looked over towards the two Asgardians again, looking them up and down with distrust. “Why are you here now?”

“We seek to destroy Thanos,” the Valkyrie answered.

For an instant, Nebula almost looked angered by the sentiment, but it quickly dissipated. Instead, she gave a bitter smile.

“Then we want the same thing,” she replied. “However, you came to the wrong place for that. Without Thanos, there’s no way of getting off this planet without a working ship. You’ve stranded yourselves.”

“Perhaps not,” Loki spoke up. “We may be able to help you get that ship running. Then all of us could get off this planet, and find Thanos.”

Nebula was clearly skeptical. “Why should I believe you?”

“Because,” Loki said, and Nebula whirled abruptly. He was now standing behind her, having left an exact duplicate of himself in his place beside the Valkyrie; which faded into nothingness when she looked back towards it. “We have some tricks of our own.”

He’d clearly caught Nebula off her guard, and Loki couldn’t help but grin.

Nebula’s eyes narrowed. “Now I know who you are,” she said. “I didn’t recognize you without the power of the Tesseract filling your veins.”

Loki’s smirk only deepened. “Thanos turned me into a weapon, just like you. So...will you trust us?”

“Trust you? Not likely,” Nebula said. “But I will accept your help...for now.”

“Good enough for me,” the Valkyrie replied, letting her sword once again settle fully into its sheath as she made her way past Loki and Nebula. “Now, let’s take a look at this clunker.”

~

After spending several years as a junker for the Grandmaster, the Valkyrie knew her way around machines. The make of the craft Nebula had been working on was foreign to her, but she was determined that she could improvise enough to make it work. Loki worked alongside her, helping her out with his magic wherever he could.

Even when she insisted on helping them herself, Nebula watched them both intently. Though a part of her was still convinced she could have handled it on her own eventually, she couldn’t deny that their combined skills impressed her. 

“I think we almost have it,” the Valkyrie finally said, climbing out from under the ship. “All we need is some kind of energy surge, to jumpstart the engine.”

Loki got to his feet, though his expression was grim. “My magic can do a lot of things, but unfortunately it can’t generate electricity,” he admitted with chagrin. 

He had been dreading Nebula’s reaction to this information, only to notice that she was looking away from them -- towards the sky.

“What the hell is that?”


	3. Chapter 2

Loki and the Valkyrie followed Nebula’s gaze towards the sky, and they saw what she was seeing: a comet, rocketing towards Titan.

“Get down!!” Loki shouted. He turned towards the Valkyrie, intent on shielding her with his own body, only to discover that she had already taken off running to take cover behind a nearby rock formation. With little time to think, he followed suit; motioning for Nebula to follow -- in the very same instant that she blew right past him.

Once they were all behind the rock formation, the three of them each braced for the impact of the inevitable explosion when the comet reached the planet...but none came.

Instead of an explosion, there was a dull, hollow thud, followed by dust scattering across the planet’s surface. And then silence.

The trio all peered out from behind the rock spire, and were greeted by a thoroughly unexpected sight.

It wasn’t a comet at all, but a woman. She wore the garb of a soldier, but all in bright red and dark blue; with a gleaming golden star shining on her chest. Her hair was pale blonde, and her eyes were glowing. As the light dissipated, it became clear that she was staring directly at them.

In the same instant she started to move towards them, all three of them bolted out of hiding; hands lifted in surrender. While the Asgardians were taking the safest route in the face of such an intimidating figure, Nebula had her own reasoning for taking the passive position: she recognized the uniform.

A former Kree soldier, who had disowned the Kree colors.

“Who are you?” the woman asked sharply; straight to the point.

“We’re not with Thanos,” Loki said quickly, covering their bases.

“Quite the opposite, in fact,” the Valkyrie chimed in.

“You’re Mar-Velle,” Nebula said, garnering incredulous looks from the two Asgardians.

“Who?!” Loki and the Valkyrie asked in unison.

The woman, however, paused with intrigue.

“Mar-Velle,” Nebula repeated. “You absorbed the power of the Tesseract and became a living generator. Before the Guardians, you were the only person to ever defeat Ronan the Accuser.”

Carol raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing he talked about me?”

“Often,” Nebula affirmed. “You were a legend.”

In spite of herself, Carol smirked. “That seems to be a pattern,” she mused. “But I’m not Mar-Velle. She gave me my powers, and my moniker, but I’m not her. My name is Carol. I’m from Earth. Or, Terra, I guess.”

Loki straightened up a bit more, as it sank in that there was someone from Earth who was unaware of his past exploits; and therefore didn’t immediately associate him with trying to subjugate Earth. Something he would have to enjoy while it lasted.

“I am Loki of Asgard,” he introduced himself in return.

“Brunnhilde of the Valkyries.”

Loki turned towards her, his brow furrowed in a silent question. ‘Your name is Brunnhilde?’

She looked back at him and lifted her own eyebrows, in a silent response. ‘You never asked.’

“And I am Nebula.” She stepped forward as she introduced herself in turn. “I am of the Luphomoid species, but I am the last of my kind. Thanos saw to that.”

Carol looked solemn as Nebula’s words sank in.

“So,” she continued, glancing at each of the three in turn. “None of you are with Thanos.” It was now less of a question and more of a statement.

“No,” Brunnhilde replied. “We’ve all lost something because of that monster. He and his lackeys wiped out what was left of our homeworld.”

“He kidnapped me as a child, and put me through years of torment,” Nebula added; and Carol could tell from the look in her eyes -- that was the short version.

“He murdered me,” Loki offered.

Carol gave him an incredulous look. 

“...I got better.”

Carol shrugged it off. “So why are you all here?”

“We all came here looking for Thanos, too,” Brunnhilde answered. “Hoping to get revenge, or at least find a way to do so.”

“So none of you know where he is now?”

“Earth is your best bet,” Nebula spoke up. “He’s already used the Stones. Utilizing all six at once takes an immense amount of energy. He’ll be weakened.”

“Unfortunately, we’re stranded on this planet; at least until we can get that ship up and running,” Loki interjected, gesturing towards the wreck the three of them had been working on.

“Hold on,” Brunnhilde spoke up, realization in her eyes. “We need an energy surge to get it working. Didn’t she say something about you being a living generator?”

She met Carol’s eyes hopefully.

Carol looked from Brunnhilde to the ship and back again.

“Okay, I’ll help,” she conceded. “Once I get you three to Earth, you help me track down Thanos.”

“And then what?” Loki inquired.

“Then we take him out,” Carol said simply, before striding towards the ship.

“Oh, I like her already,” Brunnhilde told Loki with a smile. 

“So do I,” Nebula agreed, and the two of them were quick to follow behind Carol.

The three of them piled into the ship; Brunnhilde settling into the pilot’s seat, Nebula into the co-pilot’s; while Loki was forced to brace himself for takeoff by holding onto the backs of each of their seats.

Once they were ready, Carol all but lifted the ship completely off the ground, as if it weighed nothing at all. Through the ship’s window, Loki could see her hands and arms starting to glow brightly.

All at once, the ship began to whirr and hum to life, its long-dormant control panel suddenly lighting up.

“Hit the engine, now!” Nebula exclaimed, and Brunnhilde sprang into action.

A flick of a switch, a pull of a lever, and the ship lurched forward, lifting into the air and swiftly carrying them off of Titan.

“I don’t suppose this old thing has the coordinates for Earth in it, does it?” Loki spoke up.

Brunnhilde lifted her gaze, and a wide smile spread across her face.

“We don’t need them,” she said. “Look!”

Loki and Nebula followed her eyes, and saw Carol, a soaring, blazing beacon, flying ahead of them; leading the way towards Earth.

Astounded, Loki smiled. “She is spectacular.”

~

The ride was not the smoothest, nor was the landing, but the ship carried them all the way to Earth, which was the best they could have hoped for.

As they settled on solid ground again, all three of them piled out of the ship, making their way to where Carol stood, waiting for them.

“You really saved us,” Brunnhilde told her. “Thank you.”

“I wouldn’t thank me just yet,” Carol replied; albeit smiling at her all the same.

Loki glanced around at their surroundings, and immediately realized where they were: outside the Avengers headquarters.

Admittedly, the place looked a lot more...empty than he remembered.

“So, what’s our next move?” Nebula asked.

“I had a thought,” Carol said. “Thanos’ power relies on the Infinity Stones, doesn’t it? So, if we get rid of the Stones, it’ll make it a lot easier to take him down.”

“It’s not that simple,” Loki spoke up. “The Infinity Stones are the most powerful relics in the galaxy. It would take unparalleled power to destroy even one of them.”

“Possibly...power that came from one of the Stones?” Carol ventured with a smirk, lifting one glowing hand to press it against her opposite palm.

Loki quirked an eyebrow. “Point taken.”

“Even then, she could only destroy one of the Stones at a time,” Nebula pointed out. “We need even more firepower to destroy them all.”

Lowering her hands, Carol pondered. “You’re right,” she admitted. “We need a scientist; someone who knows plenty about these Stones. Someone who can figure out what it would take, not just to destroy them, but potentially control them, so we can beat Thanos at his own game.”

Realization dawned on Loki, and he grew even paler than usual.

“Oh, no.”

“What?” Brunnhilde queried. “What’s that look for?”

“You know someone,” Nebula said. “Don’t you?”

Loki sighed heavily. “I do,” he conceded. “But I can’t guarantee she’ll help.”

Carol shrugged. “It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”


	4. Chapter 3

Jane would always remember that day. Everyone who was left behind would, of course; but it was perhaps even worse for the people who had no way of seeing it coming.

After she had finally bitten the bullet and cut ties with Thor, after months of little to no contact, she had gone back to her life outside of gods and monsters and magic. She threw herself into her work, the way she had always done. 

For years, she had a quiet life again. She had Darcy, and Dr. Selvig, and things were the way they had been before.

She couldn’t say she never missed it, even a little. She still had dreams about Asgard, about the place where magic and science met and became one. She still looked up at the sky and wondered if Heimdall could see her. She still remembered how it felt, to know what true power was.

But then she saw what was happening on the news: Sokovia, the Accords, Wakanda; the division of the people who were supposed to be protecting the world, and suddenly she didn’t miss being a part of that world anymore. 

It was almost comforting, in a way. To be on the outside.

Until the Snap.

The days leading up to the event were tense, to be sure, but everyone was cautiously optimistic. It was just another alien invasion, right? The world had evolved to the point where an alien spacecraft descending upon the planet seemed like just another Tuesday.

They had no way of knowing what was coming. They had never heard the name ‘Thanos.’

Not until they saw friends, coworkers, loved ones, turn to dust before their eyes.

Jane had bolted out of her lab, making desperate phone calls to the people who mattered most.

Darcy was safe. Erik was safe.

Ian was gone, and so were Darcy’s parents. 

Jane had never seen Darcy grieve before. It was...haunting, to see someone who was usually so bubbly and full of life become a quiet shell of herself for days on end.

But of course, it was only a matter of time before Darcy turned to humor in order to cope. It was her way, after all.

In the weeks that followed, Darcy had moved into her parents’ farmhouse; not wanting to let the place be repossessed. Not wanting her to be alone, Erik and Jane went with her.

Jane liked the Lewis farm, though it took some time for her to adjust to it being a little more empty.

With Darcy’s blessing, Jane set up a new lab there. Erik brought a truck full of his old inventions and experiments for her to tinker with.

Jane became obsessed with a singular idea: was there a way to undo what had been done?

Once information was readily available about what had happened, once it was public knowledge that it was because of the Infinity Stones, Jane had committed herself to her scientific research more than ever before. 

She knew the Infinity Stones, she had direct experience with them. She had seen the Tesseract. Erik had been directly under the influence of the Mind Stone, and experienced the aftereffects of that. She had carried the Aether -- the Reality Stone -- inside her body, and lived to tell the tale. She knew what the power had felt like.

The Infinity Stones were another one of those points, where science and magic intersected. If she could break them down to their base components, and truly understand them, maybe there was a fighting chance things could be changed.

Darcy, on the other hand, was resigned to the situation. In her mind, there was no undoing this, there was only moving forward. In a way, Jane admired her for that, and she knew that the hope she held onto was likely futile. She kept her work private, for the sake of her friend; working with Erik in the barn to further their research.

Even with their limited resources, they had a chance. Maybe that was enough.

~

“Hey, Jane?”

Jane looked up from her notebook, her gaze settling on Darcy where she stood at the foot of the staircase. 

“Can you give me a hand with these boxes?” Darcy asked. “I, um...I want to move all of my dad’s old books and stuff down to the cellar.”

The implication behind her words settled on Jane immediately, and she gave Darcy a sympathetic smile.

“Of course,” she replied, setting her notebook and pen aside as she rose from the table. 

While Darcy busied herself with filling up another cardboard box, Jane turned her attention to the box she had already filled; taking a moment to leaf through its contents.

While she had never really known Mr. and Mrs. Lewis that well, she knew that Darcy’s father was the primary influence that led her to start studying astrophysics. Mixed in among the old Stephen King and John Patterson volumes were books on mathematics, outer space, and an old battered copy of A Brief History of Time.

As she lifted it out of the box, she also noticed another book that had been resting beneath it: Ragnarok: The End of the Gods.

She reached down and picked it up, lifting it into the light. The book was old, but the gold burnishings on the cover were still in good condition. The cover showed an image of an old oil painting of Loki, as he appeared in the old Norse myths. Mostly nude and bound to a large stone; while a serpent hovered over him with an open mouth, ready to drip its venom onto him.

Jane’s gaze lingered on the book for a moment longer, before breathing a sigh and letting both of the books she was holding settle back into the box among their fellows.

Picking up the box, she carried it out of the farmhouse. There was no way to get into the cellar from inside the house; instead access to it lay behind an old-style storm cellar door, set into the earth itself outside the house.

Outside, the wind was picking up. The farmhouse lay just on the edge of a wide field of grain; left unharvested this year. As Jane carried the box of books towards the in-ground cellar door, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. 

It was a figure -- a person -- standing in the wheat field.

She turned towards them fully, narrowing her eyes to try and get a better look at the intruder.

Then she recognized him, and the box fell from her hands to land with a thud on the ground.

Tall and pale, dressed in a black suit, with long black hair framing his face; he cut a striking figure against the line of the horizon.

Loki.

In spite of herself, Jane couldn’t help but move towards him, stepping into the field of wheat despite how much further the stalks went up around her than they did around him.

As she drew closer, it became clearer that it was, in fact, Loki standing there. Even once she reached him, he remained silent, just watching her as she approached.

They stood there together in the field; holding each other’s gaze, but unable to speak, for a long moment.

It almost came as a relief when Loki finally broke the silence.

“Hello, Jane.”

With the tension broken, Jane took another step forward, reaching out with one hand to brush her hand along Loki’s sleeve. She was almost surprised when he turned out to be tangible, and she felt soft material under her fingertips rather than her hand moving straight through his form.

All at once, she realized what she was doing, and quickly withdrew her hand as she met his eyes again.

“Sorry,” she breathed softly. “I just…”

“Wanted to be sure I was real?” Loki finished for her, raising an eyebrow at her as the beginnings of a smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. “At least you didn’t hit me again.”

Jane had to laugh. The whole situation was so crazy, the only thing left to do was laugh.

Loki’s expression softened further, seeing her laugh. “It’s good to see you, Jane.”

“Thanks,” Jane replied, lifting her gaze to once again meet his. “How...are you alive, exactly? Not that the reunion is unwelcome, but I kind of...watched you die.”

Loki nodded. “Svartalfheim,” he said. “I remember.”

Jane raised an eyebrow. “Was it...another trick?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be,” Loki admitted. “By all rights, I was mortally wounded. That part wasn’t a trick. But...as I was fading, I thought of my mother, Frigga.”

Jane’s breath caught in her throat. Frigga had died protecting her.

“After she passed, I was all that would be left in the world of her magic,” Loki went on. “If I were to die, that part of her would die with me, and that....I could not allow to happen. So, with a bit of magic of my own, I was able to pull myself back from the brink of death.”

Jane was quiet, astonished. “And...then what did you do?”

“Something foolish, of course,” Loki answered. “I went back to Asgard in disguise, and put Odin under a spell. I hid him away on Earth, and...took his place on the throne. Disguised as him.”

Jane wanted to laugh again, though it was little more than a soft huff of breath as she smiled again; this time without as much mirth. “Of course you did.”

“My aim was to usher Asgard into an era of peace,” Loki continued, cracking a slight smile of his own. “And it worked, for a time. But it couldn’t last, as I should have known from the start.”

Watching him then, Jane’s expression softened again. “Sounds kind of like me and Thor,” she mused. “As stupid as that probably sounds.”

“It doesn’t,” Loki told her, immediately. “He never did tell me what happened, between you two.”

Jane sighed, shoving her hands into her jacket pockets. “After Sokovia, things changed,” she replied, despite knowing that she didn’t owe him an answer. “Thor was...obsessed with the Infinity Stones. Ironically, kind of like I am now.”

She shook off that thought -- that was beside the point. “He never told me what exactly happened, when he went up against Ultron, but...it did something to him, I could see it. He would take off for long stretches of time...no calls, no contact, nothing. Sometimes I didn’t even know if he was coming back at all. At a certain point, I just...got sick of it.”

Loki was silent for a moment, looking into her face and seeing the honesty in it.

“I think you were well within your rights to.”

Jane couldn’t help but be surprised by his reaction. Of all people, Loki was possibly the closest to Thor. He was his brother, despite the past conflict between them, and she had half expected him to defend Thor no matter what. Even Darcy, when Jane had first called it quits with Thor, had a hard time completely understanding her reasoning at first. But Loki did. 

“...Why are you here now, Loki?” 

Loki sighed. “There’s still so much left I have to tell you, Jane,” he told her. “But I suppose the time for that will come. For now, there is the matter at hand.”

He took a deep breath before he continued. “Jane, you are a woman of science. As it stands now, you are the greatest mind I know of, in all the Nine Realms. This is our most dire hour, and...we need you.”

Jane’s brow furrowed. “Wait...who’s we?”

“Myself, and a few...friends of mine,” Loki answered. “The Avengers are vanquished. We are the only ones left who can move against Thanos, but we can’t do it without your help.”

He paused for a beat. “You’ve been studying the Infinity Stones...haven’t you?”

Jane’s face settled with determination. 

“Bring your friends here,” she told him. “I’ll show you my research. Loki, if there’s even the slightest chance that we can make this work...we have to take it.”

Loki nodded, smiling at her. “I know.”


	5. Chapter 4

As caught by surprise as Jane and her team were to find Loki, whom they had long thought to be dead, standing very much alive outside the farmhouse, it paled in comparison to the surprise they felt when his three companions arrived to join him.

Three women, each of them more imposing and powerful than the last.

“Loki,” Darcy said. “Did you join a gang?”

Loki had to grin. “As always, Miss Lewis, you are a delight.”

Darcy beamed with pride.

Erik, on the other hand, was shifting his weight from foot to foot; clearly indecisive as to whether or not to flee.

“It’s, uh...a surprise to see you, Loki,” he managed politely. “Alive, that is.”

Loki smirked. “Still afraid of me, Selvig?”

“To be fair, you did kind to turn his brain into shepherd’s pie for a little bit,” Darcy pointed out.

Loki could practically feel Carol arching an eyebrow at him.

“I did,” he admitted. “I apologize for that.”

“So, you’re not…?”

“Trying to kill anybody?” Loki finished for him. “Not currently. Except, of course, for Thanos.”

“Which is exactly why we’re here,” Brunnhilde chimed in, keeping things on track. She had already made herself comfortable at the kitchen table, putting her booted feet up on the chair opposite her.

“I suppose introductions are in order,” Loki surmised. “Doctors Jane Foster and Erik Selvig, and their assistant, Miss Darcy Lewis.”

Despite being a bit daunted by the women before them, both Jane and Erik nodded towards them in greeting, offering polite smiles.

“Hi,” Darcy piped up from where she was seated on the countertop, giving an awkward wave. “‘Sup. Welcome to the planet.”

To everyone’s quiet surprise, it was Nebula who cracked a smile.

“And allow me to introduce…” Loki began, but trailed off as each of his three companions were quick to introduce themselves.

“Nebula.”

“Brunnhilde.”

“Carol Danvers.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Brunnhilde added. “Now, before we start, with respect...is there a liquor cabinet here?”

While Jane looked quietly incredulous for a moment, without hesitation Darcy hopped off the counter and opened up a nearby cupboard; drawing a bottle of aged wine from it and setting it on the table, within Brunnhilde’s reach.

“Much obliged,” the Valkyrie said by way of thanks. In the same breath, she drew a dagger from her belt and used it to cut away the cork of the bottle.

Even Carol’s eyes widened.

Loki, however, had long since adjusted to this. “Right,” he sighed, as Brunnhilde began to chug the wine straight from the bottle. “Now, to the matter at hand. Jane?”

Jane already had her notes at the ready. 

“Ever since the Snap, Erik and I have been doing as much research into the Infinity Stones as we could; given we both have direct experience with at least one of the Stones.”

“What kind of experience?” Carol inquired.

“Well, for one, while he was working with SHIELD, Erik did extensive research on the Tesseract, also known as the Space Stone. On top of that, he was directly under the influence of the Mind Stone for a prolonged period of time --”

“Again, I apologize for that.”

“It’s fine, Loki,” Jane murmured, before launching straight back into her explanation. “And as for myself, I was exposed to the Reality Stone, for around the same amount of time.”

“Exposed?” Nebula queried, raising her metallic eyebrow. “Elaborate.”

Jane actually hesitated. “I...may have accidentally...acted as a host for the Stone.”

For the first time, the Luphomoid looked taken by surprise. 

“And you survived?” she asked incredulously. “No ordinary creature could withstand the energy of even one of the Infinity Stones, let alone a purely Terran one.”

Loki cracked a smile. “I assure you, Jane Foster is no ordinary Terran.”

Jane gave Loki a look, though it wasn’t entirely without fondness. 

“Don’t listen to him,” she went on. “There is nothing special or supernatural about me whatsoever. Believe me, I still, to this day, have no idea how I survived. If anything, it may lend credence to my theory that the Infinity Stones may have a weakness; or at least a loophole that we can potentially exploit.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Carol agreed, moving to take a seat beside Jane. “I got my abilities from the Tesseract. Is it possible that power similar to that of an Infinity Stone may be enough to destroy it?”

Jane’s face all but lit up. “By all rights, it should be entirely possible,” she went on. “It’s hard to tell for sure without some sort of experiment to prove it, but even then, it’s a start.”

“So basically, the only way to find out is to try it,” Brunnhilde spoke up.

“Even then, we don’t have nearly enough power to destroy all of the Infinity Stones; at least not all at once,” Nebula added. 

“If we play our cards right, we may not necessarily need to destroy all of them,” Jane replied. “As long as we can separate them from the Gauntlet -- the right ones -- so that Thanos can’t use them all, or at least the most powerful ones, it’ll put him at a significant disadvantage.”

“Sounds plausible,” Carol said with a nod.

“Don’t forget, Jane,” Erik finally spoke up, stepping forward. “There may be a way that we can test your theory, without going up against Thanos directly.”

Jane whirled in her chair to face Erik, giving him a look that clearly indicating they had not discussed bringing up this matter beforehand.

But it was too late; he had already brought it to the forefront.

“What way is that?” Brunnhilde asked.

Jane slowly turned back around, breathing a long sigh. 

“It’s in the barn.”

“Wait,” Darcy piped up; finally speaking from where she had been sitting, gobbling down cheese popcorn during this entire conversation. “What’s in the barn, exactly?”

~

The best way to explain what exactly was in the barn was to show them.

Jane and Erik led the rest of the group to the barn, and the doors swung open to reveal various machinery that had been transported from Erik’s old lab. They followed Erik’s lead directly to one machine in particular.

Loki recognized it immediately.

“Is that --?”

Erik nodded. “It is. This is the very same machine that you were first able to travel to Earth through, from the outer reaches of space.”

“I still cannot believe you kept this,” Jane pointed out.

“I had a feeling it would come in handy someday,” Erik insisted. “And that day is today. What I never told you, or even Nick Fury, is that this machine acts as a doorway to other dimensions as well.”

Brunnhilde’s brow furrowed. “Other dimensions?”

“Possibly even other realities,” Erik continued. “Essentially, no matter where in the universe Thanos is, this machine will be able to locate him.”

“Erik --” Jane said, but he kept going nonetheless.

“Or at the very least, his energy signature! The same energy as the Infinity Stones! That way, we can compare his energy signature to yours, Carol, and determine which is stronger!”

“Erik,” Jane said again, a little more sharply this time. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but it’s too dangerous. Worst case scenario, we could open a portal and bring Thanos right to us; while we’re still thoroughly unprepared to face him ourselves.”

While Jane was embroiled in conversation with Erik, Loki was staring at the machine very intently.

“Jane?”

“Yes, Loki?”

“Is it meant to be glowing like that?”

Jane and Erik paused and looked over at the machine, realizing for the first time that it was, in fact, lit up a brilliant orange.

“Erik, did you already turn the machine on?” Jane asked quickly.

“No, I swear, I didn’t,” Erik insisted. “I checked, it’s been powered off since New York; now is the first time I’ve even considered powering it on again. I didn’t even change any of the settings, it shouldn’t even know what to be looking for.”

“Maybe it wasn’t looking for anything,” Jane whispered, with quiet realization. “Maybe someone found it...on the other side.”

“Doors open from both sides,” Erik breathed.

“Everybody get back!” Jane suddenly cried out, and in almost the same instant the machine blazed to life.

Everyone cleared the way for the beam of orange light as it shot forth from the mouth of the machine. Jane jumped away from the platform, and Loki caught her without hesitation.

Standing back, all of them watched in shock and awe as the machine buzzed, whirred and gleamed, and out of the light that had sprung from it, particles began to appear and gradually take form.

Piece by piece, inch by inch, the particles came together to form the shape of a human being.

A human who was screaming.

Their form shook and flickered for a moment, before their body fully materialized.

All at once, the light went out, and the machine was dark again.

Wanda Maximoff crumpled to the ground, unconscious...but alive.


	6. Chapter 5

For a heavy moment, there was silence in the barn as they all stared in horror at what they had just witnessed.

“Okay,” Darcy said, breaking the tension. “That was the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Despite their shock, the group collectively rushed forward to see to the woman who had come through the dimensional portal.

Carol reached Wanda first, deftly pulling this woman who was a stranger to her forward to cradle her in her arms as she checked her vitals.

“She’s alive,” she told the others. 

“That’s miraculous,” Brunnhilde pointed out. “Considering it looks like she’s been through hell.”

“Wait a second,” Jane breathed. “I think I know who she is; I’ve seen her on the news before. She was one of the new Avengers; she...disappeared during the Snap. They called her the...”

“Scarlet Witch,” Loki finished for her, pausing to stoop beside Carol and peer into Wanda’s unconscious face. “Oh, I remember you.”

Carol gave him a pointed stare. 

“Dial back the creepy for a minute,” she told him, decisively getting to her feet as she lifted Wanda into her arms; as if she weighed nothing. “You guys saw that; it looked like she was in a thousand pieces before that machine spat her out. Right now, we have to focus on making sure she’s alright.”

“Carol’s right,” Jane agreed, hurrying to keep up with Danvers as she was already striding back towards the farmhouse, carrying Wanda. The others were quick to follow suit.

Jane’s mind was reeling with a million questions, but they could all wait to be answered until Wanda regained consciousness. If she returned from the Snap, somehow...then what she and Erik had been trying to achieve may well have been possible after all.

~

“She’s stable, for now,” Erik told the others, after he and Carol had set Wanda up on the couch. “However, I’m hardly a medical professional, so one of us should stay with her, just to keep an eye on her in case her condition changes.”

“I’ll do it,” Carol said without hesitation. 

Nebula’s eyes narrowed; albeit more with curiosity than with skepticism. 

“No disrespect -- why are you so intent on protecting this woman?” she inquired. “We know almost nothing about her.”

Carol shrugged. “Us girls need to look after each other,” she said. 

The statement was simple at first, but she rose to look at each of the others one by one. 

“More than that -- all need to look after each other. Until we deal with Thanos, we’re all we’ve got right now.”

There was a new weight to her words, and they all seemed to realize the true gravity of the situation. They were in this together now: all of them.

“I’ll stay, too,” Darcy piped up. “I was going to make some tea anyway. Plus...I’ve seen her on TV, too, she’s really cool.”

Jane smiled. “Thanks, Darce.”

~

As the rest of the group trickled out into other parts of the farmhouse, Jane dashed forward to catch up with Loki; placing a hand on his arm.

“Loki,” she said under her breath, and almost stumbled when he stopped and immediately turned towards her.

He raised an eyebrow at her, in a manner that indicated he had clearly been expecting her approach. “Yes, Jane?”

Jane was stopped in her tracks, but met his gaze with purpose regardless.

“How…” she hesitated, aware of how ridiculous she sounded. “How do you know her?”

“Know whom?” Loki asked, feigning ignorance. Clearly he just wanted to hear her say it, and she knew it; but she told him anyway.

“Scarlet Witch,” Jane answered, before correcting herself. “Wanda.”

Loki couldn’t help but crack a lopsided grin. 

“Am I detecting a hint of jealousy, Miss Foster?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jane told him firmly. “There is nothing to be jealous of here. You heard Carol; whether we like it or not, we’re a team now. I want to know all of the facts, in case she’ll have an adverse reaction to you once she wakes up.”

Loki opened his mouth, as if to protest, and then immediately closed it again.

“...Fair.”

He took a deep breath. “A few years ago, I did travel to Earth again,” he explained. “I hoped that retrieving what was left of the scepter -- albeit after the Mind Stone had been removed from it -- would protect me from experiencing the full force of Thanos’ wrath.”

He almost winced, knowing how dismally that tactic had failed.

“It was being held at the Avengers’ then-headquarters, and I -- foolishly -- thought that I could slip in and out undetected,” he went on. “However, this was not the case; as she cornered me and subjected me to fair fight. One mage to another, one might say.”

He shrugged. “She was a worthy opponent, and in the end I elected to retreat, seeing as we were evenly matched; and there was no sense in allowing things to escalate further. I doubt she even recalls the encounter.”

Jane raised an eyebrow. 

“...She kicked your ass, didn’t she?”

For once, Loki stuttered. 

“She -- I --” 

He huffed softly, folding his arms. 

“She...bested me, yes,” he finally admitted. “But she is immensely powerful. We should consider ourselves very lucky that of all the people that could have been spat out of that machine, it was her.”

~

Wanda opened her eyes.

It felt like awakening from a dream. She was dazed, disoriented, and it took her a moment to fully focus on her surroundings.

As her vision cleared, she noticed the two other people in the room with her.

The first person she saw was the blonde woman who was seated beside her on the couch, facing away from her; and for a moment Wanda could have sworn it was Natasha; until she noticed the brightly colored uniform that was decidedly not Nat-like.

Then she glanced over towards the flicker of movement in the corner of her line of sight, and saw the other woman in the room, this one a brunette; clearly a civilian.

This woman was the first to notice Wanda stirring and looking around, and the two of them made eye contact for a brief moment.

“Oh, hey, she’s up,” the woman said casually, making her way over to join them. “Hi. You want some tea? It’s chamomile.”

Despite her surprise and lingering sense of unease, Wanda nodded. 

“Yes, please,” she answered. She tried to draw herself up fully into an upright position, but found herself getting light-headed just from the simple motion alone.

The blonde seemed to know immediately.

“Take it easy,” she told her. “Don’t overexert yourself. You’ve been through a lot.”

Wanda slowly settled back down again, finding herself strangely soothed by the stranger’s kindness.

“You must have a million questions,” the civilian woman said as she made her way back over to them, mugs in hand. “I’m Darcy; you’re at my parents’ place. Or...my place, I guess.”

She settled down across from Wanda, placing the other mug in front of her on the coffee table.

“And this is Carol,” she went on, indicating the blonde woman. “I just met her today, but she’s totally cool.”

Carol smirked.

“Don’t worry, I’m...an associate of Nick Fury,” Carol told her. “And I’ve been in touch with your friend, Natasha.”

This information somehow didn’t come as much of a surprise to Wanda, as she took in Carol’s state of dress and her overall heroic appearance. Of course she was affiliated with the Avengers.

Wanda was silent for a long moment, taking the time to sip her tea and allow herself to get her bearings. Darcy met Carol’s eyes, and realized that the best thing to do would be to give the two of them a moment alone.

“I’ll, uh...I’ll let the others know,” she murmured, before taking her own mug and heading out of the room.

For a moment, Wanda and Carol met each other’s eyes; each of them hesitant to speak right away.

It was Carol who finally broke the silence.

“Wanda...that’s your name, isn’t it?”

Wanda nodded again.

“What’s the last thing you remember, Wanda?” Carol asked her.

With the quiet, idyllic peace that now surrounded her, Wanda almost didn’t want to think about the answer to that question. But she allowed herself to close her eyes, and she remembered everything.

“Losing,” she whispered. “Not just losing the fight, but...losing everything.”

She thought of Vision; of the agony of having to not only destroy him, but watch him die twice. She thought of her brother Pietro, of her parents, of everything that had been taken away from her.

“It was almost...peaceful…” she murmured, more to herself than to Carol. “I don’t know how to describe it. The moment of...untethering…”

Now was Carol’s moment for silent contemplation, as she allowed the weight of Wanda’s words to fully sink in. Yet there was still one question that weighed on everyone’s minds.

“And...where did you go?” she asked. 

Wanda’s eyes opened.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Just a bit of preamble before we start the chapter; I just want to say that I now HAVE seen Avengers: Endgame, but there will be NO spoilers for the movie in this fic. This is going to be an entirely alternate universe from the way the Infinity arc plays out in the movies, and though as this fic goes on there might be some subtle references to things that take place in Endgame, for now I can say there won't be any actual spoilers in it. Thank you guys so much for reading; I'm amazed by all the love this fic has gotten so far and I'm excited for it to continue. <3)

Wanda sat in the middle of the couch, with a renewed sense of determination. At the behest of Darcy, the rest of the group had made their way back into the room, and were currently seated around her with rapt attention. Each of them had their own sense of intrigue to hear what Wanda had experienced after the Snap.

Her eyes swept across the small crowd that now sat in front of her, taking in each one of them. This group of strangers, and one man she knew with villainous tendencies. Not the group she had expected to find, but then again...she didn’t know what she had been expecting.

Since Ultron, she had tried to avoid using her mind-reading powers. But now that she was back, her senses were all the more heightened; and she could take a brief look into each of their minds as easily as looking into a mirror.

She caught glimpses of each of them; their reasons for being there, what they might want from her. She took care not to linger too long with any one of them, looking just long enough to know that she could trust them.

When the moment passed, she finally spoke.

“When I...disappeared,” she began. “I thought I was going to die. I could feel myself being pulled from this world. But...I was being taken somewhere else.”

Her gaze flickered away from them as she recalled exactly what happened.

“Everything was...warm,” she said softly. “It felt like I was dreaming, and yet it felt so real at the same time.”

She faltered as she remembered. She was with Vision. He was alive, and they were happy. They had a life together. They had children. There were no villains left to fight, no rifts left to close. Everything was...perfect.

After a while, that was how she had figured out that none of it was real.

The pain of losing Vision was too much to forget about completely. She spent so much time in that place, that perfect utopia that seemed like it was designed specifically for her. But the longer she stayed there, the more she realized it was all manufactured. She could see the strings. The illusion was broken, and she had to get out.

She had reached out, with all that was left of her powers, and searched for something -- anything -- that could pull her back into the real world.

And she found a way back.

She looked up again, into the faces of those who were looking to her for answers, and she took a breath.

“I was in another world,” she told them. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It was like...I was living in a bubble. A perfect little bubble. An image of what my perfect life would look like. Something that would make me happy enough that I would never want to leave it.”

Realization dawned on Nebula’s face.

“The Soul Stone,” she whispered.

One by one, each of the others looked over at her. 

“The most mysterious of all the Infinity Stones,” Nebula continued. “Thanos was obsessed with it. He never knew its location, until he tortured me to get it from Gamora. He always said that it was the key to his grand design.”

Something clicked in Jane’s mind.

“Are you saying…?”

Nebula met her eyes. “I think I finally know what he meant,” she said. “What its true power is.”

She and Jane spoke in unison. “It’s a pocket universe.”

As they came to the realization, Wanda felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

“That’s it,” she breathed. “And if I was there, everyone else must be, too. Everyone who disappeared, there’s a chance we can save them.”

Darcy, listening from the back of the room, swallowed hard, but said nothing.

“The question is, how?” Loki spoke up. 

They were all silent for a long moment. Then Jane gathered up her notebooks and got to her feet.

“If there’s a way, we’ll find it,” she said with determination, meeting Erik’s eyes with a knowing look. “If Wanda was able to come through that machine from the Soul Stone, the reverse could also be possible.”

Erik nodded in immediate understanding. 

“We’ll run some tests,” he said, already moving towards the door in the same instant Jane did so. “It’s possible the coordinates of where Wanda travelled from are still logged in the machine.”

The two scientists were still chattering with gusto as they made their way out of the room, heading towards the barn.

Darcy silently got up from where she had been sitting and followed after them.

Loki cracked a lopsided smile, thoroughly endeared.

“Well, I suppose that answers that, then,” he mused, looking back over at the other women.

“Hopefully,” Carol said, though a smile of her own danced on the corners of her mouth. She had faith in Jane Foster and her team. 

Then she looked over at Wanda again. She sat there, in her battered, battle-weathered costume; with one of Darcy’s blankets around her shoulders and her mug of tea clasped between her gloved hands, and to Carol in that moment she was the picture of pure strength.

She couldn’t begin to imagine what Wanda had gone through.

“Well,” Loki said, momentarily taking Carol out of her train of thought. “It seems that we’ll be waiting until Jane and the others reach some sort of scientific breakthrough; which knowing her will likely take...a few hours.”

Carol cracked a smile yet again. “You really believe in her, don’t you?”

For the briefest second, Loki looked caught off-guard, before his steely composure once again recovered itself.

“I trust her abilities,” he replied simply. “I’ve learned firsthand that she’s not to be underestimated.”

Carol raised an eyebrow at him, her grin widening. “I can tell.”

Loki gave her an overly innocent look in response, clearly feigning ignorance, but made no attempt to deflect what she was no doubt thinking. 

“I don’t know about you guys, but I am getting a drink,” Brunnhilde announced as she got to her feet. She paused, turning to look at Nebula. “You coming with?”

Nebula smirked and gave her a ‘why not’ shrug, before standing as well.

The two of them started to make their way towards the kitchen, but on the way Brunnhilde stopped and thumped Loki on the chest with one hand.

“You, too, Lackey,” she teased him with a grin.

“Good idea,” Nebula agreed. “Someone’s got to keep him out of trouble in the meantime, it might as well be us.”

“Well, I --” Loki began, but didn’t have a chance to protest before he was being hauled out of the room by the two women, one holding each of his arms.

Carol watched them go with amusement, chuckling under her breath before she once again looked over at Wanda; who was smiling.

With that pure, peaceful smile, she was especially beautiful.

There was a long moment of silence between the two women; who hardly knew each other, yet felt a sense of kinship with one another. 

Then Carol finally spoke again.

“Darcy laid out some clothes for you, by the way,” she said as she, too, got to her feet. “The shower’s all yours as well.”

Wanda’s expression softened further, though her smile didn’t fade.

“Tell her thank you for me, when you see her,” she said, though she didn’t move just yet.

“I will,” Carol replied with a nod. “Take some time to relax, okay? We’ll come find you if we need you.”

Wanda nodded in response.

“What about you?” she asked. “What will you do?”

“I’ll touch base with Natasha, make sure she’s in the loop,” Carol answered. “I get the feeling she’ll want to be involved as much as she can be.”

“Definitely,” Wanda agreed, smiling fondly at the thought of Natasha. 

There had been a time when the two of them were the only women on the team, and that had brought them together in a strange way. She wasn’t sure if Nat considered her a friend, but she was the greatest mentor Wanda could have asked for, back then.

She sat silently, watching Carol as she left the room, and she was once again alone with her thoughts.

Now that Carol had mentioned it, a shower and a change of clothes sounded great to Wanda. As much as the tea had helped, she was still sore all over, and she wanted to get into something more comfortable than her leather battle garb.

Setting aside her mostly-empty mug and the blanket, she slowly pulled herself onto her feet despite the protest in her creaking joints and muscles, and moved towards the bathroom.

~

Just as she promised, Carol contacted Natasha once she was outside the farmhouse.

She did her best to explain everything that had happened since she had initially departed for Titan; at least the parts that were especially important. 

“So...Loki is helping you?” Natasha asked, for clarification.

“Apparently so,” Carol confirmed. “I get the feeling I’m out of the loop on exactly what his deal is, but he gives off the vibe of someone who has trouble decided what side he’s on.”

“Pretty much,” Natasha agreed. “Just keep an eye on him. But if he’s actually decided to help you, I’m betting he has his own reasons for doing so.”

“Yeah,” Carol said. “If anything, Thanos messed him up pretty bad. But then again, all of us here have our own reasons for going after him. That, and Loki’s obviously in love with Dr. Foster, so I’m assuming that’ll keep him in check.”

“His brother’s ex-girlfriend?”

Carol raised her eyebrows. “Oh,” she muttered. “He failed to mention that part.”

She breathed a heavy sigh. If there was going to be that sort of drama on the side, she wanted nothing to do with it. As long as it didn’t get in the way of the mission, everyone would be fine.

“It’s good she’s on your side, though,” Natasha offered, using the subject of Jane to shift the focus of the conversation. “Wanda, too. I’m...so glad that she’s safe.”

Carol smiled. Natasha’s fondness for the younger woman was clear in her voice as she spoke, and she could see why. 

“It’s crazy to think about,” Natasha continued. “Not just that there’s a pocket universe in one of the Stones, but that Wanda was able to come back from it.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Carol surmised. “But she’s incredibly strong.”

“She is,” Natasha agreed. “If anything, I’m not completely surprised that she was able to get out.” She paused for a brief second, then added, “Clint will be relieved to know she’s back, too.”

“Your colleague?” Carol asked.

Natasha hesitated.

“More like a friend,” she said, but from the sound of her voice Carol had a feeling it was a lot more complicated than that.

It was the second time since meeting her that Natasha had reminded her of Maria. Thinking about her then, Carol felt a pang deep in her chest. 

It had been more than twenty years since the last time she had been on Earth. What had Maria’s life been like in her absence? 

What about Monica? She was no doubt an adult by now. How had she grown up?

“You’re...keeping an eye on him, huh?” she asked Natasha.

“Yeah,” came the answer. “He...he’s going through a rough time, right now. The Snap hit him pretty hard. I want to be there for him, as much as I can.” She paused. “And if the time comes and you need backup, we’ll be there.”

“Thank you, Natasha,” Carol said. “I...I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the situation out here.”

Once the call had ended, Carol lifted her head towards the skies, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. 

Then she took flight.


	8. Chapter 7

The sun was beginning to set on the horizon. 

Nebula and Brunnhilde were seated across from each other at the kitchen table, sharing a tumbler of whiskey they scavenged from the Lewis liquor cabinet. Loki sat between them, sipping a glass of Scotch.

Whatever conversation they had been having prior to this moment had been swiftly forgotten about, as somehow Brunnhilde and Nebula had devolved into a drinking contest to see who could chug a glass of whiskey the fastest, while Loki watched in quiet bemusement.

Nebula finished her glass mere seconds before Brunnhilde finished hers, slamming her glass down with an intense, yet triumphant gasp of breath.

Brunnhilde picked her head up and met Nebula’s eyes, grinning wide as she caught her breath.

“Impressive,” she told her. “You sure you’ve never drunk before?”

“What I lack in experience,” Nebula replied, still getting her own breath back. “I make up for in competitiveness.”

Brunnhilde smirked.

Loki cleared his throat. 

“Well done, ladies,” he told them. “As riveting as this is, I can’t help but feel as if I’m being held hostage here for some undisclosed purpose.”

Brunnhilde threw her head back and laughed. 

“Oh, come on, Loki,” she jabbed. “Can’t a couple of girls have a few drinks with their begrudging male friend without some ulterior motive?”

“But we do have an ulterior motive,” Nebula pointed out.

“Yes, we do, but that’s beside the point,” Brunnhilde affirmed with a wave of her hand.

Loki’s eyebrows went up.

“By all means, enlighten me.”  
The two women exchanged a knowing look and smirked at each other before collectively looking back at Loki.

“What’s the deal with you and the scientist?” Brunnhilde broached.

Loki balked. “Beg pardon?”

“Jane,” Nebula said. “You obviously have history with her.”

“When were you going to tell us?” Brunnhilde added.

“I didn’t think that information was pertinent to our current situation,” Loki said with a sigh.

“I suppose it’s not,” Brunnhilde shrugged. “We’re just --”

“Nosy,” Nebula said.

“Curious,” Brunnhilde insisted, and Loki rolled his eyes.

“I guarantee that the facts are nowhere near as salacious as you two are no doubt imagining,” he told them.

“We’re imagining nothing,” Nebula said.

“Then, are you wondering why I trust her so much?” Loki wondered.

“Not at all,” Brunnhilde replied. “We can already see why you do. She’s brilliant, and her friends are delightful.”

“What we’re wondering is how you’re connected to her,” Nebula clarified.

Loki breathed another quiet sigh.

“It’s...complicated,” he murmured.

“That much is evident,” Brunnhilde pointed out, taking another sip of her whiskey.

Loki gave her a pointed stare.

“She was once romantically involved with my brother.”

Brunnhilde’s eyes widened. “Wait...that’s Thor’s ex?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

The two women said nothing, but the looks on their faces clearly indicated for him to continue.

“At first, I was...envious of her, in a way,” Loki admitted. “If Thor hadn’t met her during his time on Earth, things might have been very different. I saw her as little more than a distraction for him; at least...until I met her myself.”

He turned his attention to his glass of Scotch, giving a wistful smile.

“Then I could finally see why my brother was so taken with her.”

Remembering himself, he took a long drink, swiftly leaving that moment of vulnerability behind.

“I witnessed her strength firsthand,” he continued. “To have an Infinity Stone within her body and survive for as long as she did, is unparalleled. That, and through a series of events, I had to assist her and Thor in moving against the Dark Elves.”

He hesitated just briefly. “We...helped each other quite a bit, and came to respect one another.”

Brunnhilde quirked an eyebrow. 

“Is that all it is?”

Loki gave her a sidelong glance, though there was no ire in it. 

“Believe what you wish,” he told her, and yet it was all she needed to hear on the matter.

She exchanged a look with Nebula, who had fallen silent, and she saw a similar look of understanding on her face.

All three of them took a drink, in the shared silence.

“Regardless,” Loki mused, looking over at his two comrades once more. “That is why I trust her judgement wholeheartedly. And, while we need her knowledge and willpower in order to pinpoint any of our adversary’s potential weaknesses…”

He trailed off, and his eyes darkened as his expression became grim.

“Under no circumstances will I risk her life.”

~

Carol swallowed her pride as she made her way up the familiar walkway, towards the all too familiar house.

So much time had passed since had last stood here, and yet the place looked more or less unchanged.

For the first time in over twenty years, there was a knot of uncertainty in Carol’s stomach as she stepped up to the front porch, and carefully knocked on the door.

The wait for an answer took only a few seconds, and yet they seemed to crawl by like hours.

Then the door opened to reveal a young woman standing there; almost as tall as Carol herself, with long, vibrant locks of natural hair.

As she recognized the person standing before her, the woman’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack.

“Oh, my God,” she murmured, taking a cautious step forward. “Auntie Carol?”

Carol knew immediately who she was looking at, and despite the pang of missed time in her heart, she smiled wide. “Hi, Monica.”

Monica rushed to hug her, and Carol held her close for a long moment, running her hand over her hair. 

“Oh, look at you,” Carol whispered softly, as tears sprang to Monica’s eyes.

When Monica lifted her head again, she immediately reached to grab Carol’s hand and tug her into the house, as she turned to call over her shoulder.

“Mom! Kam! Come here, quick!”

Carol’s smile only grew. It was oddly reassuring in a way, that Monica was still as exuberant now as she had been when she was a child.

There were footsteps on the staircase, and Carol turned towards their approach.

The first figure to appear was another young woman close to Monica’s age, with brown skin and long, thick brown hair. 

“Mon, what’s --?”

The young woman froze mid-sentence, her eyes widening as her gaze fell upon Carol. Unlike Monica, however, she could only stand there for a long moment, frozen in astonishment.

Monica let go of Carol’s hand, quickly dashing over to wrap an arm around the other young woman’s shoulders and lead her a little bit closer.

“This is my Auntie Carol, Kam,” Monica told her. “She finally came back!”

The young woman was still stupefied, but visibly leaned into Monica’s touch. Finally, she cracked a lopsided smile and lifted a hand to wave awkwardly at Carol.

“Hi,” she greeted her. “My name’s Kamala. I’m, uh…”

“She’s my girlfriend,” Monica said brightly. 

Kamala looked mildly embarrassed, but Carol only smiled at them.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Kamala,” she told her, stepping forward to shake her hand. Kamala did so, albeit still looking a little starstruck.

“Nice to meet you, too,” she echoed, before shaking her head slightly to snap herself out of her trance-like state. “I mean, it’s amazing, really; Monica and her mom have told me so much about you…”

Almost on cue, there were footsteps on the stairs once again, and a familiar voice called down, “What’s going on, you two?” 

Carol steeled herself for a moment as Maria approached.

She was visibly aged, now in her mid-fifties; her dark hair beginning to grey at the edges, and her face more weathered now than Carol remembered it. But she was still so distinctly, unequivocally, Maria.

Maria, like the other two, stopped in her tracks the moment she saw Carol, but there was more of a weight to it with her. There was so much history there, that made Carol almost instantly drop the veneer she covered herself with at all times. 

“Carol,” Maria breathed softly. “You came back.”

The two younger women quickly stepped to the side, clearing the way as Carol crossed the gap between them and wrapped Maria in her arms.

“Of course I did,” she told her warmly.

~

Wanda had the bathroom to herself.

Once she had locked herself in, she spent a long moment just looking into her reflection in the bathroom mirror. 

She looked like she had been through hell and back; and in a way, she had been.

Slowly, she removed each of her rings, one by one, and set them along the edge of the sink. Then her red gloves came off, and as her hands adjusted she knelt to carefully open and kick off her boots.

She took off the necklace that hung at her collarbone, hanging it up on the top corner of the mirror.

She was less careful with the rest of her costume; shrugging off her long coat and throwing aside her corset once she had unlaced it. It wasn’t until she had rid herself of her battle gear that she truly realized how much she ached, inside and out.

The warm spray of the shower came as a relief. Though her old wounds still stung, the pain would soon dissipate. Wanda ran her hands down her face, and as she closed her eyes, she struggled not to think about Vision.

Now that she was alone, it was hard not to think about him.

She was able to come back. Everyone else who had disappeared that day, there was still hope that they could be brought back as well.

But not him. Her Viz was gone, forever; no power on Earth would bring him back.

Alone, in the shower, in her most private of moments, she could have laid her head against the shower wall and finally allowed herself to cry, but she found she couldn’t. 

In a strange way, her time in the Soul Stone had given her a feeling of closure. At least in one way, she’d had her chance at a life with Viz. It hurt beyond words, knowing that it would never become a reality, but it was a reminder that he wouldn’t want her to tear herself apart with grief.

Instead, she tried to focus on the feeling of the water against her skin, on running her hands over and through her hair as she thoroughly rinsed it.

She thought about Jane Foster and her team. She knew that Jane was a Nobel Prize winner for her extensive research and scientific discoveries in astrophysics, and that she was once involved with Thor. But upon meeting her, Wanda had suddenly felt that the fight to undo what Thanos had done was in safe hands. 

More than that, it was Erik Selvig’s machine that had been the key to her sort of resurrection, and Darcy had immediately welcomed her into her home with open arms, and made her feel safe and comfortable.

Thinking of them only naturally led Wanda to also think about Loki, the most unlikely member of their small band of freedom fighters. She had faced him before, only once, but he wasn’t the sort of figure one soon forgot about entirely. 

Loki was like her in that he also used his own brand of magic; and though it differed greatly from her own, she had to admit that he had his strengths, just as she did.

She couldn’t help but be intrigued as to exactly how Loki, who was infamous for his villainous actions, had come to be on their side in the struggle against Thanos and his forces. Even then, she knew that the how and why didn’t always matter. What mattered was the choices that he was making now.

Furthermore, the two women he had brought to their side along with him were clearly strong in their own ways as well. 

Brunnhilde wore the regalia of a Valkyrie, and it was apparent from the way she carried herself that she was more than capable of handling a sword and a sticky situation. 

Nebula, the alien cyborg, had history with Thanos; and anyone who saw the way she reacted at the very mention of his name could tell that her ire for him burned with the most intensity out of all of them. 

Wanda wondered if she had any right to reach out to either one of them, but only time would tell.

Which left only the one member of their team who had managed to leave the biggest impression on Wanda since she had regained consciousness, and that was Carol Danvers.

Wanda didn’t know Carol’s story, or how she had come to be there. She didn’t know the kind of power she held. What she did know, however, was the impact that such immediate kinship and kindness had left on her, so soon after meeting this woman. 

A shiver ran through her body, and her eyes finally fluttered open again. 

As she shifted her attention to focus more fully on washing her hair, Wanda was at last beginning to again feel at home in her own skin. They were an unlikely team, thrown together by twists and turns of fate, and trusting each other out of necessity. But for the moment, she felt she could be safe standing alongside them.

~

In the barn, Jane and Erik were bustling around the machine, doing their best to salvage whatever they could from Wanda’s trip through it before the machine went fully dark again. 

Darcy stood a ways behind them, watching; occasionally swapping out Jane’s tools and notebooks as she hurried from tier to tier of the machine.

“Were you able to lock down the coordinates?” Erik asked, as Jane transferred the frantic scribbles from her notebook pages into the star-mapping software on her laptop.

“Better,” Jane told him confidently. “I was able to track the energy signature.”

As her fingers flew across the keyboard, the image on her computer screen gradually came together more and more; a beam of brilliant orange light streaming across the cosmos.

Erik and Darcy leaned in close, peering over each of Jane’s shoulders.

“Oh, God…” Erik whispered.

“Jane,” Darcy blurted out, having been uncharacteristically silent up until this moment. “Do you think this might actually work?”

Jane met her friend’s eyes, and she knew right away what she meant by the question.

Was there a chance she would see her parents and boyfriend again?

With an encouraging smile, she nodded.

“I think so, Darce,” she told her. 

Darcy hesitated, but spoke again.

“Jane, I said a lot of things --” she began, but Jane reached out to take her hand, and she knew nothing more needed to be said on the matter.

“I know,” Jane said reassuringly. “It’s okay.”

~

Carol and Maria sat side by side on the back porch of the Rambeau homestead, looking out at the lakeside view where they had once watched Monica play. Now, Monica and Kamala had retired upstairs, to give the two women a moment of privacy.

“Maria…” Carol began, though she had no idea where to even start. 

Maria had spent years waiting for her. Even before then, she had thought Carol to be dead for a long time, then had her suddenly back in her life only to watch her fly off into space for who knows how long. Carol still couldn’t fully remember the life that they’d had together, and now she couldn’t help but wonder about what could have been.

And yet, when she looked into Maria’s eyes then, she saw no resentment whatsoever. 

“It’s okay,” Maria told her. “I know. There were times when it was easy, and times when it wasn’t. But...in the end, I wouldn’t change anything.”

“Really?” Carol asked.

Maria nodded. “Just knowing that you were up there, protecting so many other worlds who needed it more than we did...it was a comfort for us.”

She cracked a wide, bright smile then. “Hell, Kamala knows all about you,” she went on. “She’s a huge fan of yours.”

Carol smiled back. “I can tell.”

Then something soft brushed against the side of her leg, and she heard a quiet meow.

Looking down, she was greeted by the face of a familiar orange cat looking expectantly up at her.

“Goose,” Carol sighed, and she couldn’t help but look at the alien cat with fondness. “There you are. I was wondering where you ended up scampering off to.”

She stretched out her hand, and Goose hopped up onto her lap.

“It’s a miracle Fury ever gave her up,” Maria mused with a grin. “But once SHIELD moved on to bigger things, he brought her here for me and Monica to keep an eye on...no pun intended, of course.”

Carol laughed all the same, her fingers gently stroking Goose’s fur.

Then her smile faltered, thinking about Fury. About the fate he had met at the hands of Thanos.

Maria saw Carol’s expression fall.

“I think I know why you’re here, Carol,” Maria said. 

Carol looked over at her again.

“Thanos,” she said simply, and Goose suddenly stood up on Carol’s lap, looking up at her with purpose.

“Do you think...there’s a way to --?” Maria began, and Carol nodded.

“I know there is,” she told her. “I...have some people helping me.”

She thought about Jane’s knowhow, Brunnhilde’s strength, Nebula’s rage, Loki’s wit. But her mind lingered a moment longer on Wanda, and her resilience.

Maria saw the expression on Carol’s face, and gave her a determined smile.

“You got this, girl,” she told her. “Though...I’m pretty sure the cat wants in.”

Goose meowed pointedly.

~

Dressed in the clothes Darcy had lent her, Wanda took a look at herself in the mirror as she brushed her hair. 

A blast of magic during combat with Proxima Midnight had somehow bleached Wanda’s hair to a light reddish, strawberry blonde color; and even more mysteriously, a single wash had restored it to its original dark brown.

She still looked exhausted, but she felt refreshed, and more importantly, comfortable. The clothes that Darcy had laid out for her included a cozy T-shirt, simple black yoga pants, a pale grey cardigan, and (most appropriately, Wanda thought), bright red socks. 

Alongside Darcy’s borrowed clothes, however, Wanda had also found another article of clothing: a brown leather Air Force jacket, presumably belonging to Carol.

Against her better judgement, Wanda shrugged it on as well.

With her hair seen to, she put each of her rings back on, and finally stepped out to face her new teammates.

Loki, Nebula, and Brunnhilde were all still seated at the kitchen table, though their glasses were now empty. Wanda wasn’t sure how long they had been sitting there drinking, but she noted right away how well all three of them seemed to be able to hold their liquor.

She lingered in the doorway for only a moment before passing them by, before any of the three noticed her there.

Instead, Wanda proceeded straight to the front porch, stepping out into the cool night air.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, as the wind tugged gently at her hair and clothes.

When she opened them again, Carol was standing there.

As startled as she was, Wanda could only stand, transfixed, and watch Carol as she approached the farmhouse.

“Hey,” Carol greeted her. “Glad to see you’re feeling better.”

In spite of herself, her gaze skimmed over Wanda from head to toe.

“You know that’s my jacket, right?” she asked with a smirk, raising an eyebrow.

Wanda’s face flushed, and her gaze dropped down towards her feet. “Sorry, I --”

“It looks good on you,” Carol interjected.

Wanda lifted her gaze once again, though the reassurance did nothing for her blushing.

Carol held Wanda’s eyes for a moment longer before passing by her, and for the first time Wanda noticed the orange cat trotting along at Carol’s heels and into the house.

Taking a breath, she followed suit.

“Is...the cat yours?” Wanda asked hesitantly.

“Sort of,” Carol answered with a shrug. “What did I miss?”

They passed the entrance to the kitchen, and Wanda glanced towards it for only a moment.

“Not much, it seems like,” she replied. “But we haven’t heard from --”

The door to the farmhouse burst open behind them.

Wanda jumped and whirled towards the noise, only to find it was Jane rushing in, carrying her laptop.

“Guys,” she said breathlessly. “You need to see this.”


End file.
